Avalara CommerceTracker Blog Series: On-the-Pulse Insights Into Commerce Trends – At Home and Across Borders

Avalara’s SaaS based transaction tax compliance service automates the process of sales tax and other transactional tax compliance. We work within our customer’s own financial, billing, ecommerce, and point of sale systems to deliver accurate tax calculations in real time. As a result, every day Avalara calculates millions of dollars in taxes on millions of products sold online and in stores customers globally – from small businesses to large retailers.

That generates a lot of data and puts Avalara’s CommerceTracker team in the unique position to access on-the-pulse insights on what’s going on in commerce in the U.S. and around the world – from consumer trends, predictive analysis that can help retail businesses create better targeted campaigns, or just a wacky fact. For example:

• Post-Valentine’s Day rush to buy books: Avalara CommerceTracker revealed a huge spike in book sales on 15^th February 2016, suggesting partners who were disappointed by the standard chocolates, flowers or teddy bear decided to gift themselves one of the romance novel that were just released that week, or lonely Valentine’s rushed to live their own romantic fantasy through the pages of a book
• Sentimental holiday gifts are purchased early: Consumers looking to buy jewelry during the holiday season are more likely to make an early purchase decision. Data from 2015 showed that almost a third (30%) of all jewelry transactions during the holiday period occured in the week of Thanksgiving. Savvy retailers can take note of early bird versus last minute holiday buying trendsto help guide inventory, promotions and further decisions
• Wacky redhead facts: Last year, haircare products targeted at redheads were discounted the most during the month of September. Avalara has yet to uncover the secret as to why…

Avalara’s CommerceTracker blog series has recently launched and is where we share these insights.